last night in toronto
by athme
Summary: This is 4th story in my forever knight x-files cross over. it is also the last rewrite of a forever knight show, last knight has now become last night in Toronto. it can stand alone but it helps if you have read the other stories in the series first.


Last Knight in Toronto

Nick had spent the weekend working with Vachon teaching him some of the tricks he had learned over the past 800 years but today was Monday and that meant it was time to go back to work. Tracy had drove over to Nick's loft and they were riding into the station together. Tracy regarded Nick differently since she learned he was a vampire but it made her more confident in him. It also made her feel as she had less to prove to him for some reason.

They were just about to the station when the dispatcher called over the radio. They needed a pair of detectives at an address in the upper end of town it was a nice neighborhood the kind of place Tracy and Nick rarely had to go to. Nick looked over to Tracy, "think we should take this one?" Tracy shrugged, "sure we might as well, besides I am not in a hurry to get into the station. Someone," she said with a smirk on her face, "needs to catch up on his paperwork." Nick picked up the microphone, "this is Knight we are about ten minutes away we will head over."

When they arrived at the scene Natalie was outside the building. Nick noticed that her face was pale and she looked almost sick. "What's up Nat? you look like you have seen a ghost." Natalie looked over to Tracy and Nick, "I had to get out of there. The victim was a friend of mine it looks like a suicide. But I don't believe that. I can't believe that." Nick looked worriedly at Natalie, "you going to be alright? I want to go do a walk through of the scene and talk to the first responding officers. Nat are you sure you shouldn't book of this case and get the coroner's office to send someone else over?"

Natalie shook her head and stood up from the steps leading up the apartment. "No I need to be here, I want to catch whoever did this to Laura. Let's go back in together." As Nick climbed the steps that lead up to the apartment he noticed a uniformed officer taking a statement from a woman. The officer put up his notebook and pen and thanked the lady and turned to Nick. Nick asked, "are you the first responding officer?" the young man scarcely old enough to shave answered, "yeah me and my partner where the first on the scene the door was locked so we had to bust it down he is still up there with the body."

Nick said, "what can you tell me?" the officer answered, "well me and my partner got dispatched over here because the neighbor downstairs called us in she had a leak in her bathroom that seemed to be coming from upstairs. She went to check on it and found the hall carpet upstairs soaked through from under the door she knocked on the door and got no response so she called the police. When we arrived on the scene the door was locked and we had to break in. my partner has been the only one in the room the so he can probably tell you more from that end."

When Nick got to the apartment he noticed there was a fire exit close to the door, "see what I am seeing Tracy?" Tracy looked at the fire exit door and said, "yeah this door is perfect for someone to lie in wait for someone going into that apartment. I am going to go check it out and see where it leads." Nick said, "sure good idea I'll go talk to the officer in the room." Natalie was already in the room she had walked up past Nick and Tracy while they were talking to the rookie. Her voice had hit new levels of volume as she was speaking to the officer. "what do you mean you turned off the water? Are you telling me you touched those open taps before the crime lab got a chance to dust for print? Please tell me you didn't." the older officer looked at Natalie, "sure I did I figured it was a suicide. Besides the place was filling up with water!"

Nick stepped into the room and grabbed the officer and pulled him to the side. "Officer Sims is it. I assume you know proper crime scene procedure. Body on the premises what do you do?" Sims looked like a drowning man praying for a life preserver. "call the crime lab call the coroner's office call for detectives and touch nothing, Sir. I messed up." Nick nodded, "yes you can certainly say that but I won't put it in my report this time hopefully the crime lab can still get some useable prints off those taps if there was any to begin with." Sims looked grateful for Nick's reassurance, " I promise nothing like this will never happen again."

Nick nodded at started to look elsewhere in the apartment while the crime lab and Natalie were busy in the bathroom. He found a purse lying on the end table near the door. He opened it up and dug around in it taking each item out and laying them neatly on the table. Just then Tracy came back in the room, "Nick the door at the bottom of the steps was forced open. I think we should get someone from the crime lab to go down there and dust it and the door at the top of the steps for prints." Nick finished the emptying the purse and upended it over the floor nothing else was in it. "Trace what's missing?" Tracy looked at the items on the table, "well lets see we have pepper spray, wallet, change, hairbrush, hum no keys. Well that certainly explains how this deadbolt was locked from the outside. I am leaning towards murder. I think Natalie was right I don't believe her friend killed herself." Tracy said, "look at that Nick we are three stories up and she still nailed those windows shut." She pointed over to a pair of windows in the apartment's living room.

Nick said, "I have seen something like this a few years back the woman in question killed a man then committed suicide. When me and Skanky got on the scene the kitchen was littered with delivery boxes the house smelled stale windows were nailed shut." Tracy looked at Nick, "why… I mean what would make a person do that?" Nick shook his head he looked sadly off at the windows. "she was afraid very afraid the woman had got out of an abusive relationship and her abuser stalked her then one night he broke into her house. The homicide was justifiable, self defense even I guess she just couldn't live with herself. I think Ms. Hanes never saw her attacker coming. She was coming in from work the attacker was sitting at the door over there he waited for her to open the door. Jumped her from behind. Then drug her down the hall maybe raped her then put her in the bathtub to wash off the evidence then realized that was not going to be enough to hide what he did so he killed her took the keys and locked the door after he left."

Tracy shuttered, "sound like a reasonable theory. Scary but reasonable. I want to work the stalker angle when we get back to the station I want to see if Ms. Hanes had papers out on anyone." Nick nodded his head that's a good idea." He reached into his pocket and pulled out his keys and tossed them to Tracey, "why don't you go on back to the station take my car. I am going to go check on Natalie and ride back with her. Besides I am going to tell her that we agree with her and are handling this as a murder investigation." Tracy nodded, "will do. I'll let you know if I find out anything."

Later on that evening, Natalie was driving the car and talking to Nick "damn it Nick it's not fair! Today I just had to help put my best friend since medical school in a body bag. I want whoever did this to pay." Nick feeling uncomfortable with the direction Natalie was taking decided to change the subject, "you knew her in medical school?" Natalie grinned, "yeah those were the days she knew even then that she wanted to be a psychologist. I was going to be a GP." Natalie started laughing, "that that was before I met Dana Scully. She got me interested in criminal forensics. Now there is someone I haven't thought of in a long time we used to be inseparable me, Laura, and Dana." Nick asked, "what happened?" Natalie said, "we graduated me and Laura moved back up here I got a job working for the coroner's office and Laura got a job working in the prison system as a psychologist. Dana got a job working for the US FBI last I heard she was teaching in Quantico at the FBI academy."

As the car rolled to a stop Natalie said, "thanks for riding with me Nick thanks for talking to me. You will catch this guy won't you? Promise me you will catch him." Nick said, "I promise we will find out whoever has done this. we will bring him in." Nick got out of the car and waved at Natalie as she drove off. He walked into the station feeling sad for Natalie. As he walked into the bullpen and headed over to his desk Reese bellowed at him, "about time you showed up Knight. Could you and your partner come into my office?"

Once Tracy and Nick got into Reese's office he slammed the door behind him, "I talked to your partner earlier she explained why you were not here earlier. I am not going to give you any flak over spending time with Natalie, How is she taking it?" Nick answered, "about as well as can be expected captain. She wants this guy caught bad." Tracy cleared her throat, "I might have a lead on a suspect, Ms. Hanes had filed for a restraining order against a man named Delbert Dawkins." Nick shook his head, "I wouldn't have expected that one to turn up?" Tracy said, "do you know this Dawkins guy?" Nick answered, "sure I have brought him in a few times, mostly small stuff he has maybe one assault on his record this is quite and escalation for him."

Reese said, "now let's get down to the reason why I called you two in here. You two are on a hot case, and I am not going to take you off it, but once this case is finished. I want to see you both parked behind desks every shift from now until however long it take you to get your paperwork done. Sometimes I think you two are the best detectives I have in this building but you are so far behind in paperwork it is not funny. I have folks up the line chewing hunks out of my hide because of that. So get it done or I am going to take it out on you. Now get out of here and bring that guy in the sooner you close this one out the sooner the paperwork gets done" As they left the office Nick asked Tracy, "do we have a last known address on file for Dawkins?" Tracy handed Nick back his keys, "we sure do and you get to drive."

When Nick stopped the car they looked at the rundown house, Tracy asked, "how do you want to do this should we just wait here for him to come out or should we just go up and knock?" Nick thought about it for a minute, "let's call a couple of uniforms for back up then knock, unless he has changed a lot the minute we knock he is going to try to bolt." A few minutes later a marked car pulled up behind Nick's Cadillac Nick and Tracy got out of the car and met the officers from the marked unit. Nick told them, "we want this man for questioning in connection with a murder earlier this evening. He may be armed he is definitely a flight risk. We would like for you to assist us." The uniformed officers nodded and one of them said, Sure what would you like for us to do?" Nick answered, "I want to go around back take one of you around to cover me on one side of the house and the other to say and cover Tracy and the other side. That way no matter how he runs we have someone covering all exits."

As they moved into position Tracy pulled her weapon once everyone was in place the officer that went with Nick opened his radio mike to signal to his partner that he and nick were in place. The other officer nodded to Tracy. She banged on the door, "metro homicide" less than a second later the occupant of the house tried to run go out the back door but nick was waiting for him. He knocked the man off his feet and cuffed his hands behind his back. Nick helped Dawkins to his feet and the other uniformed officer came up on Dawkins's other side and they walked back to the marked cruiser. Nick shoved Dawkins inside it and asked the officers to take him downtown.

Tracy got back into the caddy with Nick, "don't you wish they were all this easy." Nick snickered, "I don't know Tracy. Yes we have suspect but we don't know for sure he did it. Besides that I am not really looking forward to that mountain of paperwork waiting for us." When they got back to the station Nick was waiting on the officers to come get there with Dawkins. Once Dawkins got there Nick lead him to an interrogation room and undid the handcuffs from behind him so he could sit down then put them back on with his hands in front of him.

Tracy came in with a cup of coffee and sat down. Nick turned on the tape recorder and read Dawkins his rights then he asked him, "where were you tonight earlier tonight?" Dawkins Laughed nervously, "I went to see my doctor, you know my doctor right she loves me she told me so." Tracy stepped in and asked, "Laura Hanes? Is that your doctor? You know she had a restraining order out against you?" Dawkins, shouted back, "no she loves me she told me. She told me. You're just trying to confuse me." He pointed at Nick, "you're trying to confuse me like he did. trying to make me say I did something I didn't do!" Nick almost snarled, "I never made you confess to something you didn't do, I asked you to plead guilty so you could get a reduced sentence, besides that there were three witnesses that saw you break that man's arm."

Dawkins giggled, "the doctor believed me, she told me that you manipulated me, she told me she loved me. She said we were going to be together forever." Suddenly Dawkins turned serious, "the bitch lied to me once I got out of jail she said she didn't want to see me anymore. I went to her tonight I went to remind her of what she said! I am not going back to jail you can't make me!"

Nick motioned for Tracy to come out of the room with him, "I think he has gone mad as a hatter. I am going to go talk to Natalie and tell her I think we have caught our man, could you call the crowns prosecutor and see if we can get a warrant to search the house where we picked up Dawkins? I am sure there is evidence there we can use." Tracy nodded, "sure Nick no problem. Tell Natalie that if she wants to talk to someone I would be glad to talk to her."

Nick thought about driving over to the coroner's office he decided against it he would rather fly. He landed near the back entrance and walked in. Grace was sitting at her desk out front, "you here to see Natalie detective?" Nick smiled back, "yeah is she in?" Grace answered, "yes the poor dear is back there she has had three crying fits since she came back. You are not responsible for them are you?" Nick shook his head, "she didn't tell you the body we found today was an old friend of hers." Grace paled a little, "she should have told us or left the autopsy for day shift." Nick answered, 'no she said she wanted to do this for her friend I have good news for her I think we have the person responsible for it. Mind if I go on in and see her?" Grace nodded, "sure go on and see her."

Nick entered the morgue where Natalie was just closing a drawer. She turned and saw Nick, "I have never done that before. I have never had to close someone I knew up in one of these." She pointed to the wall. Nick walked over and hugged Natalie, "well I have some good news I think we have the man responsible. He appears to be one of her former patience I think he became fixated on her and stalked her she had a restraining order against him." Natalie gave a soft little laugh, "April 14th 6 years ago" Nick looked a little puzzled, "what does that date mean?" Natalie laughed, "that was the last time one of my patience talked back to me. That was the day they wheeled you in here." Nick looked a little shocked, "I hope you don't mean to imply I have been stalking you?"

Meanwhile across town in the police station Tracey was getting two uniformed officers to move Dawkins from the interrogation room to a holding cell. As she led him out of the room he kicked one of the officers behind him. The other responded by drawing his gun. Dawkins wrestled the gun away from the officer and pointed it at Tracy he shouted, "you can't make me go back! You will have to kill me!" he fired the gun twice hitting Tracy once with a grazing blow to the head and once in the chest she fell to the floor. Dawkins laughed like a maniac and ran towards the door before he even made it three steps Reese shot him.

Back in the morgue the phone rang, Natalie picked up the phone, "metro morgue Lambert speaking. Yes Knight is here want me to put him on the phone." Natalie handed the phone over to Nick, "Knight here, Yes I understand. No I want to take the rest of the evening off. Frankly I don't care. Listen if you want my resignation you can have it tomorrow otherwise I am taking the rest of the night off today and will report in for work tomorrow. You do that Walters I'll sign it tomorrow when I get in goodnight."

Natalie rocked back and almost jumped when Nick slammed the phone down, "I only heard one side of that conversation from here but it did not sound good." Nick replied , "no it's not I'm at least going to get wrote up tomorrow for insubordination. But that's not the worst of it the Reese has been relieved of duty. Standard practice when a shooting a suspect causes a death inside a police station." Natalie looks horrified, "there was a shootout in the station?" Nick nodded, "they wanted me to come in and ride his desk for the rest of the shift." Natalie asked, "well if it is standard procedure and they want you to take over the office for the day what is the problem." Nick said, "well I hadn't even got to the worst part yet." Natalie said, "oh no another officer was hurt. Wait it wasn't Tracy was it?" Nick nodded, "she is in the hospital in critical condition. I am going to go over there right now."

When Nick got to the hospital he asked the desk clerk, "what room would detective Tracy Vetter be In I heard she was admitted a short while ago?" the nurse answered, "are you another family member? If so I sent her husband up awhile ago she is on the fifth floor intensive care unit room 508. Patience on that floor are not supposed to have more than one visitor up at a time." Nick looked at the nurse, and caught the woman's heartbeat and said, "in this case I think we can make an exception" the nurse shook her head and repeated,"in this case I think we could make an exception, I think I will call right up and let them know you are coming."

Nick got on the elevator and pushed the button for the fifth floor room 508 was near the elevator he could hear Vachon talking to a nurse, "so how bad is it really the doctor didn't tell me much." The nurse answered, "we are trying to get her vitals stabilized so they can operate the next hour will really determine if she has much of a chance to pull through." The nurse left the room and Nick went in Vachon went from sitting beside Tracy's bed to slamming the door behind Nick.

"What the hell happened Knight you were supposed to be with her. You are supposed to protect her at work! where were you?" Vachon had fire in his eyes as he spoke. Nick put a hand on Vachon's shoulder, "I thought she would be safe she was in the station surrounded by other officers. I went to tell Natalie that I thought me and Tracy had caught the man who had killed one of her friends." Vachon looked at Nick, "that's not good enough you owe me, hell you owe her. Help me fix this. I will not let her die because some punk shot her. You convinced me to stay in town and protect her. You didn't warn me that I could fall in love damn you Knight you never warned me. I won't lose her." Nick looked at Vachon so what you want to bring her across here in the middle of a hospital? Have you thought this through at all?" Vachon grinned ruefully, "what would be the fun in that? Please help me. If she decides not to come back I can live with that if she decides to walk into the sun tomorrow I can learn to live with that too, maybe but she will not die because some waste of blood shot her." Nick pulled out his cell phone and hit the speed dial for Natalie, "Nat we have a situation here at the hospital I am going to need you to be here very soon with whatever weight you have to get a body released to the coroner's office. No Natalie I am not going to do anything rash, but I have a Spanish friend here that plans to do something very rash and I am going to try to help. Keep him from getting caught."

Vachon approached the side of the bed, "apricots and calla lilies, that's what you smell like Tracy. Please come back to me." He bent down and bit her neck drinking from her deeply when he pulled back from her he used his teeth to rip open his own wrist and placed it over her mouth. "drink deep my love and please come back to me. Be mine now and forever." As Nick stood by the door he heard the monitor flat line then felt the new vampire life bloom in the room with him and Vachon. Not long after that a nurse came into the room and turned off the monitor. "I am sorry for your loss but you do know your wife had a do not resuscitate order attached to her file." Vachon looked like he was going to weep and collapsed into Nick, "tell me. Tell me at least the bastard that shot her is dead." Nick hugged Vachon tightly, "you shoot a police officer in the middle of a police station how far do you think you could make it before someone killed you?"

An orderly came into the room, "we have orders to move the body to a coroner's van. They must be some vultures over there because they were pulling in like they were waiting for her to die." The nurse shot a nasty look at the orderly, "that is no way to talk in front of the husband and brother of the deceased." Nick straightened Vachon up, "come I am going to take you home where you can grieve in privacy." Nick practically dragged Vachon over to the elevator and pushed the down button. Once they were inside the elevator Vachon looked at Nick and grinned, "so how was my performance I thought I might have went a little over the top but I am not sure." Nick motioned like he was going to slap Vachon then just fell laughing against the side of the elevator. "I think we might just get away with this yet. But we have one small problem left to overcome."

Vachon sobered up, "yeah I think someone just might notice if a body goes missing from the back of a coroner's van. Unless you have any bright ideas." Nick said, "hum I have an idea that just might work but we have to move fast and involves theft destruction of private and local government property. Also it is going to mess up traffic in the area for hours" Once they left the hospital Nick outlined his plan to Vachon. Vachon nodded knowing what he had to do. He flew off into the night sky. As the coroner's van came around the side of the building Nick flagged it down.

"Oh good. I was hoping you would be driving and be alone" Nick said as he slid into the passenger's seat. "that is going to make the next part of what we have to do a whole lot easier." Nick turned to Natalie, "take us over towards the Raven that is our next stop." Once they got to the Raven Nick hopped out of the van and opened to back doors he looked both ways on the quiet night street then pulled the stretcher Tracy was laying on out of the van. As he dragged the stretcher to the front door of the raven he fished in his pocket for the keys to the door. Door opened and Tracy and the stretcher safely inside he locked it back. He came up to the driver's side door of the van. Natalie slid across the front bench seat of the van to let Nick drive.

"Now what nick? How are we going to explain a body disappearing between the hospital and the morgue?" Nick gave Natalie a tight smile, "I got it covered as long as Vachon is keeping up his end of things. Once they turned a few streets down and back to the hospital he saw his caddy near an intersection. "good that is one thing down and in place. Natalie I think it would be safer for you to get out here. Just wait over there near my caddy this will all be over in a few minutes." Natalie got out of the van, "you are going to explain what's going on soon aren't you?" Nick just smiled and said, "better than that, you will see what's going on in real-time soon. Front row seats." Nick put the Van in gear and drove off towards the intersection once the light changed to green he revved the engine up and pulled out into the intersection.

Natalie watched in horror as a semi tanker truck ran a red light and smashed into the van. Seconds later the van and the semi truck both burst into flames. Natalie watched in stunned silence as two shadows walked out of the flames arm in arm. As they got closer Natalie could make out that it was Nick and Vachon. Vachon was a little bruised up and Nick had a cut over his forehead. "When they got to the car Nick got into the caddy and called the precinct. There has been an accident at the intersection of Thomas and Vine. A tractor trailer ran a red light and slammed into a coroner's van fortunately Natalie Lambert the driver of the coroner's van is unhurt but the flames were already too bad around the cab of the semi to get to the driver. I suspect he is dead." Nick got out of the caddy and reached into his pocket and pulled out the keys to the Raven. "Tracy is over at the Raven but you better get her out of there and take her some place safe before she wakes."

Natalie looked at Nick in dumbfounded silence for awhile, "I never knew you could possibly be so devious. You care to tell me where Vachon managed to come up with a tanker truck. You know while we wait here for the police to arrive on the scene." Nick leaned back against the caddy and smiled. "well as long as he stuck to the plan he stole it from the truck stop about four miles down the road… I'll have to ask him later to be sure." Natalie hauled off and smacked Nick hard, "do you have any idea how badly you scared me and you're just sitting here grinning like a fool." Nick looked at Natalie hurt welling up in his eyes, "well I figured it was going to be hard enough for Tracy and Vachon to have to move on I didn't want to make you have to go on the lam too. I should have warned you better but we didn't have time for much a better, simpler plan and informing you." Natalie was almost weeping as she hugged Nick, "don't ever and I do mean ever do anything that dangerous again. It was a damn fool stunt and you could have been killed."

As marked cars came in from all directions to cordon off the area an officer walked up to Nick and Natalie to take their statements. Then the fire department came in to try to put out the high intensity flames by the time the firefighters would get through nick was sure the twisted metal in front of them would be hard to identify as anything. He knew that finding a body in that mess would be considered impossible and they would give up the search pretty easily. It was nearly dawn so Nick told Natalie, "I need to get back to the loft. You want me to drive you over to the morgue? Natalie looked at her watch, "no that will be cutting it to close. You better get home before the roosters start crowing. I'll get a ride with one of the officers here."

Nick left the scene of the "accident" wishing there was something better that could have been done. Not that the situation had not merited drastic measures. "oh well" , he mused to himself, "I'll get Vachon and Tracy in touch with Aristotle to set up Tracy and Vachon new identities. There is no doubt they will have to relocate." He arrived at the loft pulled into the parking garage and hopped into the lift. Night was nearly over and he was tired used up. The last thing he expected to see when he opened the door to his loft was Tracy Vetter laying on his couch with Vachon propped up against it.

"Vachon what's going on here?" Nick asked. Vachon shrugged, "it was too far for me to try to make it to the house carrying Tracy. I knew she would not want to wake up at my old place so here was safe." Nick nodded in understanding, "I don't have much in the refrigerator but Tracy will need it all when she wakes up." Vachon said , "um about that I kind of boosted a case from the Raven I put it in the refrigerator. I promise I'll pay for it when LaCroix gets back in town." Nick laughed, "don't worry I'll tell him to put it on my account. Besides it's not like there are many left from the community in the area."

Vachon looked glumly at the floor, "Yeah between the Fever and Divia most of us has moved out of Toronto and the few who are left mostly go to that new place over on eighth street. I suppose me and Tracy will have to leave as soon as she is strong enough to travel. Knight I meant to ask you about that. How come she hasn't woken up yet? I can feel her but she hasn't stirred at all."

Nick went over to the couch and kneeled over Tracy he removed the dressing over her abdomen where one of the bullets had struck her. The hole was nearly healed, "she had significant trauma before she was brought across but the wounds are healing well. It might take a few more hours. That is the way it works though the body will have to heal before she can wake up."

Nick stood up, "I am going to head off to bed let me get some sheets for you and her would you mind moving her over to that chair so we can pull at the bed from the couch for both of you two? It would be more comfortable for the both of you in the long run."

When Nick came back with bed covers Vachon had already pulled the bed out and had Tracy laying on the pull out bed. Vachon took the covers from Nick and spread them over the sleeping Tracy. As Nick turned to walk up the steps Vachon cleared his throat, "Knight when I first met you I thought you were a hard ass. Don't get me wrong I still think you are a hard ass but you have been more than fair with me. Thanks I owe you a lot and I don't know how to repay you." Nick smiled, "take good care of Tracy and yourself that is all the payment I ask for."

Nick laid down on his bed for a very long sleep feeling he earned it. It was a very busy day meanwhile across town a plane was landing from overseas. Elsewhere in town Natalie was clocking out from the coroner's office meaning to head over to Nick's loft to pay him a surprise visit. And Tracy rolled over in the bed snuggling closer to Vachon. Little did Nick know as he fell asleep in less than one hours time the elements were all coming together in a way that would change his life forever.

The lift in Nick's loft started waking Tracy from her sleep when the lift stopped and the door opened Tracy could see Natalie. But for some reason it didn't quite register on her that it was Natalie her friend all she could smell was the blood and she could hear it calling to her singing almost, it was more than she could resist. She leapt from the bed towards Natalie grabbing her it occurred to her in some small part of her mind what she was doing was wrong that she should stop but the newly awakened vampire inside her would hear none of that.

Natalie gave a small choked cry as Tracy sank her fangs into Natalie's neck that was enough to cause Vachon to stir. He tore out of the bed and could smell the blood he also could see who Tracy had hold of it snapped him awake at once. He charged across the room and tore Tracy off of Natalie and threw her across the room. When she hit the wall it woke Nick up. Nick flew down the stairs as he entered the room he fell to his knees staggered by the sight he saw before him Vachon was holding Tracy down across the room and Natalie was lying passed out on the floor. Near the loft doors. Nick went over to Natalie and clutched her to his chest he could feel her heart slowing. He cried out in rage and fear.

Meanwhile less than 20 feet away LaCroix could feel the pain and anger across his link to Nicholas. He tore into the house and not having the patience to wait for the elevator went to the stairs leading up to Nick's loft. He entered the loft and took in the scene before him. The young Spaniard was holding down Nicholas's partner nearly losing the fight with his fledgling while Nick was crying blood tears onto the face of the good doctor. He hurried to the refrigerator and pulled out two bottles of blood checking them to make sure they had the Raven's label on them he handed them to Vachon. "Go take her up stairs and give her these" LaCroix said handing the bottles to Vachon and pointing at Tracy.

LaCroix walked over to Nicholas, "I Do not love this woman" he said as he sneered down at Nicholas holding Natalie. Nick looked up at LaCroix with shock on his face. "this woman is dying Nicholas you must act fast if you wish to save her!" Nick answered, "I can not it will change her, it will doom her." LaCroix looked at Nicholas and it dawned on him that he would have to change his tactics in order to save his son because if the doctor should die here he might lose his son forever. He walked over and grabbed the remote for the windows and opened one so the sun would not touch his son and walked into the light.

"See the sun embraces me now as it will you in time, possibly in much less time than it took me. It doesn't mean damnation to take up the mantle of the vampire as I always thought it does!" He walked over to the simple wooden box that held the cross that Joan of arc had given Nicholas he opened the box and reverently lifted the cross up for Nick to see. "I was wrong about a great many things in my life." He gently laid the cross back into the box. "bring her across so she may live." He lifted up the remote up and closed the blind then turned back to Nicholas, " I can not bring her across or I would. This is your last chance do it now or I will call Vachon down here to do it and if it comes to that I will hold you down while he does! He already has one new fledgling to care for do not add to his burden."

Nick looked at his master, "what does this mean how can you walk in the light how can you hold the cross?" LaCroix looked at Nick with a sadness in his eyes, "it means a war is coming soon and I will need you and every other Vampire I can gather to my side. Even some mortals. Don't worry about it, it is for a just purpose but it would take too long to explain now. Bring her across so that we may have time to discuss it."

For the first time in a long time nick trusted every word LaCroix said. He raised his wrist to his mouth and tore it open he opened Natalie's mouth and fed her his blood he rocked Natalie in his arms as she latched onto his wrist and started to drink from it. After a short time he took his wrist away from Natalie's mouth and gratefully accepted the bottle LaCroix handed him. LaCroix collapsed to a chair in Nick's loft and felt the bond grow between Natalie and his son. He also felt the bond of the two young ones upstairs and he knew that the nights of his family and the new family growing upstairs where coming to a close in Toronto it was time to move on but it felt right.


End file.
